Barley cultivar BR 2 developed by the Embrapa-Centro Nacional de Pesquisa de Trigo (CNPT) was released in 1989. BR 2 traces back to seven plants selected in the F3 from the cross FM 424/TR 206 made in Passo Fundo, RS, in 1979. BR 2 is a two row spring barley with wide adaptation, earliness and short straw. It is the first Brazilian cultivar resistant to Pyrenophora teres, causal agent of net blotch, a major barley disease in Brazil. In eight years of yield testing in the National Barley Trial in twelve locations of Southern Brazil, BR 2 yielded between 1,621and 4,014 kg/ha of plump kernels, with 3%, 13% and 6% yield increase over the check cultivar Antarctica 05 in the States of Rio Grande do Sul and Santa Catarina, Paraná and in the mean of 96 trials, respectively. On the farm fields, BR 2 has yielded over 5,000 kg/ha. Since its approval as a malting barley in 1992, it has been widely used, taking up 30% in 1993 and 90% in 1997 of the area sown. Barley BR 2 represents a cornerstone in the history of barley breeding in Brazil and is making a significant contribution to the competitiveness of the domestic barley production.
